Reno resident and Nevada Army Guard member Sgt. Bryan Brown earned the Officer of the year title during the three-day Best Warrior contest, which was recently held at the Hawthorne Army Depot.
Brown, 25, is part of the Army Guard’s 609th Engineer Company based in Fallon.
Staff Sgt. Keahi Granstrom, 26 and from Henderson, earned the Noncommissioned Officer of the Year title during the competition.
Both soldiers will advance to represent Nevada in the regional Best Warrior competition in May in Guam.
According to a spokesperson from the Army Guard, Best Warrior is a test of soldiers’ physical and mental abilities and combines a wide range of events that included: the Army Combat Fitness test; a military knowledge examination board; M17 pistol and M4 rifle marksmanship; communications and medical response skills testing; and a 12-mile ruck march through what organizers categorized as subfreezing temperatures and biting wind.
Nine soldiers advanced from the battalion level to compete in the state championship.
“Those two Soldiers killed it from the start,” training and operations Sgt. Maj. Cameron Anderson said. “The Soldiers who won pulled ahead early.”
Brown said he prepared for the competition ahead of time with the support of the National Guard’s 2017 Best Warrior, Staff Sgt. Grant Reimers. Reimers finished second in the All-Army Best Warrior and currently serves as the training NCO in the 609th.
“I am fortunate to have the opportunity to train with Staff Sgt. Reimers,” said Brown, who works for the state’s Division of Emergency Management and at the sporting goods store Reno Sparks Scheels in his civilian occupations. “He helped prepare me for radio communications, the examination board and pistol marksmanship.”
Brown and Granstrom have about two months to prepare for the Region VII Best Warrior competition May 23-27 in Guam. They’ll compete against state winners from Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, Utah, Colorado, California and Guam.
The entire list of battalion winners who competed included alphabetically:
NCO Division: Sgt. Enrique Dealba, Aviation Troop Command; Granstrom, 17th Sustainment Brigade; Sgt. Brenden Morgan, 1/221st Cavalry; Sgt. Daniel Sevilla, 757th STB; Sgt. Clifford Stewart, 422nd ESB.
Soldier Division: Brown, 757th STB; Jennings, Aviation Troop Command; Pfc. Christopher Handy, 422nd ESB; Pvt. Donevan Holley, 17th STB.
Source: Nevada Army Guard
